


words

by badgerterritory



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: F/F, High School AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 00:32:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2130336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerterritory/pseuds/badgerterritory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amerikate via dubious words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. tarantism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tarantism - The urge to overcome melancholy by dancing.

They met at a party. Kate had just broken up with her boyfriend (who was a jerk, but in a really charming way? at least, until she caught him making out with David) and was looking to dance the night away. 

That was when a mysterious dark-haired girl came up to her and said, “Hey. I’m America. Wanna dance?”

Kate cast a dubious eye over her spangly attire. “Please tell me that’s not actually your name.”

America just laughed and offered Kate a smirk, and Kate decided she liked America.


	2. cheiloproclitic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheiloproclitic - Being attracted to someones lips.

So, the only thing worse than falling in love with a random girl at a party was falling in love with a random girl at a party and then finding out she was a new student and sat right next to Kate in three of her classes. (How could there be nothing between Bishop and Chavez in the three classes they had together?) America said a hello and nothing else, which relieved Kate. What could she say? “Hi, we met at a party a few days ago, I fell completely in love with you and your dumb patriotic clothes thing which you are apparently still doing?”

Better that America apparently didn’t remember at all. They’d danced together a bit, and then America left.

Except now Kate was facing the actual worst thing: She was facing a girl she fell in love with on a Saturday night party, and she couldn’t stop staring at America’s mouth.

Kate had seen (and kissed) a lot of gorgeous people. She was infamous for having smooched over half of the athletes in the county, both male and female. But America was just incredible, and Kate was especially in love with her mouth. She could easily imagine kissing her, biting those lips, watching them at work between her legs. (As a horny teen, Kate reserved the right to let her fantasies become dirty as the situation dictated.)

Kate spent an entire class period staring at America’s lips, and got to stare at them some more when she had to ask for her notes.


	3. apodyopis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apodyopis - The act of mentally undressing someone.

Okay, so it was almost definitely incredibly creepy, but Kate couldn’t help it. America was hot. She was incredibly hot, and every time Kate saw her, she couldn’t help but imagine taking off America’s clothes.

She’d start slow, peeling off that vest (while giving her shit about the stars and stripes, and how her moms probably began to regret her name as soon as she started dressing herself) and then her cute shorts after, probably kissing her legs while she was down there.

Then she’d get all nuzzly with America’s legs, running her hands up and down them. She knew for a fact America rarely shaved her legs, thanks to those damnably attractive shorts, but maybe she would if they were gonna be doing it? Who knew. Kate certainly didn’t. In her imagination, though, America’s legs weren’t shaved.

After a few minutes of teasing, America would probably either be amused or annoyed, so Kate would get on with it, reaching up and under America’s shirt to feel her abs, slowly pushing the shirt up, then off, once again taking a precise amount of time to mock America for her fashion decisions, the last time of the evening, unless she wore stars-and-stripes panties, which imaginary America definitely didn’t. Because that was just… on a whole different level.

Once the shirt was off with maximum smoothness, Kate would execute a move perfected over numerous flings and girlfriends (and one non-binary partner), undoing America’s bra and flinging it aside.

After that…

Kate suddenly realized America was staring at her and blushed.

Shit.


	4. gymnophoria

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gymnophoria - The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you.

More and more often, America was feeling eyes on the back of her head. And Kate always looked away just in time when she turned. America was flattered, really. More than flattered. She liked Kate back. Sort of.

Feelings were complicated and America avoided them when possible. Easier just to get straight Cs and coast through high school until she could become a fighter, like she wanted to.

She wondered what Kate was thinking, as she stared at America. Probably thinking about stripping her. Probably assuming she’d bring the super-patriot attire onto a date. There was no way America would be wearing her spangles if she was gonna get laid.

No, she’d wear something nice. A nice shirt and jeans, at the very least. America was tempted to tell Kate, but held back. Kate was staring at her, eyes fixated on a point somewhere above her waist but below her breasts. She swallowed suddenly and looked away, mumbling something under her breath. America didn’t bother asking what she said, just flashed a grin.

There was a temptation to ask Kate what she was thinking, but that would venture into territory America didn’t want to blunder into.

She just stole Kate’s pencil and laughed at her when she pouted and asked for it back.


	5. mamihlapinatapei

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mamihlapinatapei - The look between two people in which each loves the other but is too afraid to make the first move.

Love was dumb. America believed that fully. She’d had exactly one girlfriend in her eighteen years, and that girl went on to dump her and start dating her best friend.

Except her problem now was that she was in love with her best friend. At first it was just a crush that came out of nowhere, and she could deal with that. She could deal with internally dying every time Kate did something cute, torn between the urge to laugh at her and the urge to kiss her. She could deal with the way her eyes got stuck on Kate’s curves and Kate’s movements. She could deal with it because she thought Kate was in love with her ex, Cassie.

But once that bubble burst, America realized it was so much worse than a crush. She was in love. And sometimes, when they were teasing each other and Kate looked up and stared straight into America’s eyes, she thought Kate was in love too.

But there was no way to know, and even if there was… love was dangerous. And she didn’t want to mess with her plan: Graduate high school, punch people for a living. She didn’t know much about MMA, more acquainted with the informal schools of fighting thanks to her mothers’ money issues and the neighborhood she grew up in, which was rough to lesbians who didn’t mind the insults that came out of their mouths, but she knew that she liked fighting and that was a way to make money and fight.

(She tried watching a few fights on the school computers. The principal talked to her and called her moms.)

So it was a potent mix of fear and future plans that kept America from making a move. She didn’t know what kept Kate from doing anything, if she even felt the same. Sometimes she thought Kate did, just from a glance, a comment, a stare. But Kate would always move on, flirt with someone else, never let it seem like she was actually interested in America.

It was confusing. And annoying.

* * *

The day Kate realized she was in love with America, she said, out loud, “Shit.”

The gym coach and supervisor for the archery club, Clint Barton, glanced over and said, “Gesundheit. At least, I’m assuming you sneezed there, Bishop.”

Kate rolled her eyes but her mind was churning. “Like you don’t swear every few hours.”

"No I don’t," Clint said, then missed his shot while he was bantering. "Shit."

"Like that," Kate said.

"I refuse to admit anything untoward happened and will gladly call you a liar. What’re you thinking about over there?"

She wanted to say nothing. But then she thought about the way America looked at her and said “A girl.”

Clint missed another shot. If he were drinking something, Kate was pretty sure he’d spit it out. “You think about girls?”

Kate laughed. “Have you missed all the student gossip, Barton? I have personally seen to the entire cheerleading squad in the locker room.” She enjoyed his blush and ‘I cannot be hearing this’ as he readied another arrow for a few seconds before adding, “That’s made up. But I do date girls as well as boys. I mean, in my own way. A few dates, some making out, everyone moves on nice and easy. That sort of thing works, y’know?”

Clint hummed as he released a shot, skinning a previous arrow, and then set down his bow. “And this girl’s different?”

"Yeah. Maybe." Kate missed with all her distraction. She set the bow down. "I think I actually love her. But, it’s like, that’s not who I am. I’m Kate, the girl who goes in for a date or two, not for… actual feelings. And this girl, she’s sort of the type of person people don’t fall in love with. Not in a bad way, she’s just really abrasive sometimes? And she can be rude to people who waste her time, she doesn’t like that. She’s just, I don’t know, the most beautiful person I’ve ever met."

"So what’s the problem?"

Kate sighed. “Remember a few months ago? I had to write you a note asking to use the range because I couldn’t actually speak through my tears?” He nodded. “Cassie broke up with me. She was the second person I actually loved. The first was Eli, and I didn’t even bother getting out of bed for days after that fiasco. Love is scary. And I mean, you don’t know America, but she’s got plans for herself that don’t involve dumb, scared girls that can’t get over themselves.”

"Maybe. And maybe, as I have told you before, you’ll miss every shot you don’t take." As an obnoxious example, he picked up his bow and an arrow and fired, all in one smooth motion, splitting a previous arrow down the shaft, a clear callback to the first time he'd said that. It was no less ostentatious the second time. "So maybe you just need to take it. Hit or miss, your cards will be on the table, and you might just get the girl."

Kate laughed. “Such a tangled web of metaphors and arrows.”

Still, the next time she locked eyes with America, Kate thought about taking the shot.


	6. gargalesthesia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gargalesthesia - The sensation caused by tickling.

Kate smoothly invited America over to her house to study. Her heart was pounding the whole time, because she was either going to ask America out or just not do that, like an idiot, because she was an idiot.

When America arrived, she had the good grace not to gape like most of her other friends and dates did when they walked through the door. “Always knew you were rich,” she said, “but I had no idea you were this rich. Why aren’t you off at a fancy-ass private school?”

"I insisted." Kate shrugged. "Bad memories. Which are, amazingly, not what we’re going to talk about, ever. Want something to drink before we sequester ourselves in my bedroom? We should have the place to ourselves for tonight, but you never know, and it’s generally a good idea to avoid my family."

"Detecting some family troubles." America smirked at Kate and her heart did the flippy-flop. "I get that. There’s always some tension between me and my moms these days. They want me to go to college. I want to make a career punching people."

Kate laughed. “And how are you planning on doing that?”

"I heard a lot about MMA?" America shrugged. "I figured a girl could get in on that."

Kate snorted at the thought of America doing any sort of formal martial arts. “Do you even know any of their fighting styles or whatever?”

After America seemed to think about it, she shrugged. “Not really. But I can figure something out.”

Kate immediately brought out her laptop and did some googling. Twenty minutes later America said, “Yeah, maybe I’ll figure something else out for now.”

They settled down and started to study, but it didn’t last. Eventually Kate started getting restless, and once she got restless, she accidentally found out America was ticklish when her foot brushed across America’s sole.

"Oh my god," Kate said. "America Chavez is ticklish. On your feet, at least."

America blushed. “Don’t you dare, Bishop.”

But it was too late. Kate squirmed down and started tickling America’s feet, then anywhere else she could reach. America blushed and laughed and squirmed away from Kate’s expert tickling fingers, until suddenly the tables were turned and Kate was the one being tickled.

America was smaller than her, but definitely stronger: She held Kate down and tickled her sides until Kate was begging for breath, and then she couldn’t breathe because America was staring down into her eyes and.

Shit. If she wasn’t head-over-ass in love before, she definitely was now.


	7. strikhedonia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strikhedonia - The pleasure of being able to say “to hell with it”.

America was staring at Kate. They had just finished a tickle fight, of all things, and America was staring at Kate like she wanted to ravish her.

And all of the sudden, Kate didn’t care about any of her doubts. She didn’t care that her longest relationship was three weeks with a blonde cheerleader who broke her heart to run away and live with her dad. She didn’t care that America was the most beautiful person, her best goddamn friend, and this was probably the worst idea she’d ever had.

She pulled America down and kissed her.

There was that stereotypical first moment where nothing happened and Kate’s heart almost stopped. America pulled back and mumbled, “This is such a bad idea, Princess.”

The nickname made Kate’s recently-restarted heart melt and she just pulled America in for another kiss. The smooching continued until America pulled away and said, “Okay, uh, I’m getting sort of, I dunno…”

If the blush and nervous swallowing didn’t give America away, the way she tensed when Kate pressed her leg against America’s thigh definitely would have. America was horny. And suddenly Kate was too.

"Shirt off," she said decisively. America got it in an instant and then they were both stripping.

(They went at it for two hours, nearly got caught, woke up the following morning and had sex again, then went on an extremely successful coffee date. A year later they got engaged and then they were married and it was happily ever after for our young couple.)


End file.
